tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post4932838886564179705..comments2023-10-10T08:33:26.926-06:00Comments on Byzigenous Buddhapalian: ΜήδειαPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06090720645937634051noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-69429759989184538662010-03-08T19:13:32.785-07:002010-03-08T19:13:32.785-07:00Oooh, wonderful!
We read a book for our Ascensi...Oooh, wonderful! <br /><br />We read a book for our Ascension book club by Chinua Achebe, "Things Fall Apart." It's about colonial Africa and in a lot of ways is critical of the repression by the church used in cooperation with the colonials. But at the heart in the end, nevertheless, those who follow the new religion are those who have been excluded and branded unclean by the old. No matter how twisted the message gets, thank God somehow it's still there.authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03470230019171564364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-40567106560455302572010-03-08T19:06:16.012-07:002010-03-08T19:06:16.012-07:00I love the juxtaposed healings of the young girl a...I love the juxtaposed healings of the young girl at menarche and the woman whose bleeding would not stop. So very powerful. The evangelists try so hard to lead us into Jesus' openness and inclusion - and we are so slow to learn.<br /><br />I also like the iconography of Adam's skull in the darkness at the foot of the Cross in images of the stavrosis. Adam, whose name means "earthy" and the subterranean darkness are caught up in the transformative mystery too.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06090720645937634051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-65948281930872071352010-03-08T19:01:12.946-07:002010-03-08T19:01:12.946-07:00The only thing I would say (IMNSHO of course) is t...The only thing I would say (IMNSHO of course) is that everything gets transfigured in the light of the transfiguration, including (sometimes one would say especially) the feminine, destitute, the abandoned and socially excluded. Today I blogged about the healing of Jairus' daughter & on the way of the woman with the years-long bloodflow. How could we get stronger symbols of the feminine and excluded and considered worth nothing in the social order of things. They are both transformed, loved, "daughters." I don't feel that Christ leaves anything out; everything and everyone is included - but also transformed. Salvation really depends on the interaction of faith and that power (dynamis). At least those are my thoughts for today haha. Just like the Greeks did not exclude their tradition, history, etc! That deep chthonic transformation is something we could see as reaching toward Golgotha... but something added transforms doesn't it? In a lot of ways, it is the old that renders exclusivity and exclusion - and the revolution of Christ changes that. I think this is what strikes every society that is new to that love.authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03470230019171564364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-19322682809044247822010-03-08T18:48:15.209-07:002010-03-08T18:48:15.209-07:00A great addition to the discussion, Janine. We we...A great addition to the discussion, Janine. We were blessed to see the Oresteia when it was used to open the Roda Theatre at Berkeley Rep. All three plays done very powerfully. Orestes does find peace at the last.<br /><br />The tools at Medea's disposal could empower her for revenge but not any kind of personal peace - only devastation on every front. The dragon chariot may indicate that she still belongs to a chthonic order of society- the chief witnesses invoked throughout the play are the earth and the sun, with only occasional references to the Olympians.<br /><br />Since I myself feel deep sympathy for earth-centered spirituality and indigenous traditions, I want to see earth, sun, dragons, and the feminine integrated into our faith and practice; not submerged, neglected, or denied.<br /><br />Ah, so many questions. We must keep wrestling with them.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06090720645937634051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-53581564161072228782010-03-08T15:54:08.125-07:002010-03-08T15:54:08.125-07:00Well, I think we might have chatted about Rene Gir...Well, I think we might have chatted about Rene Girard; he has a really interesting book called "I See Satan Fall Like Lightning" comparing the ancient myths to the stories of the bible (he was a French lit prof who developed social theories, esp of scapegoating and mimetic rivalry). <br /><br />All that aside, I see Medea (as so much of Euripides' work) as something that is asking questions. We remember that Euripides' Oresteia changed the whole perception of the tragedy by remitting the work of the Furies and introducing mercy. (No, I'm not an expert, just have been fortunate to be in Greece a lot and married to someone whose grandfather was a Greek classics prof.) Medea sets up another question. What to do with such injustice? Where do we go? How could things turn out differently for her? Certainly the old ways of sorcery and magic do not lead her into a powerful position that ends with anything but self-destruction. There has to be another answer. I see this through my lens today -- but if we see it culturally we will see what happened when all those extraordinarily educated rhetoriticians of the 4th century decided to apply their wisdom to the Church: that was the answer to Euripides' questions; and it would transform the ancient world. What should Medea have done? When all objects of justice are lost, when our thinking of power does not accommodate how we are to walk through devastation and injustice, where do we go to avoid this destructive end? There was a powerful answer to that; it is not rational within the bounds of what we traditionally might call power in a worldly sense. It belongs to that other place that is "more real" as you put it above.authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03470230019171564364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-22216199646872308322010-03-06T05:50:40.941-07:002010-03-06T05:50:40.941-07:00ohhhhh Grandmere --thank you! what a wonderful tho...ohhhhh Grandmere --thank you! what a wonderful thought!<br /><br />(PS--thank you for the cyber hug Paul)it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-20783729554249288012010-03-06T05:43:18.564-07:002010-03-06T05:43:18.564-07:00On the link to Drottninghom Theatre there are 2 Fi...On the link to Drottninghom Theatre there are 2 Films (Yotube) with Elisabeth Söderström (Sodastream...). You may want to watch them, they are in English!Göran Koch-Swahnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925549945659350649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-85754778349919834542010-03-06T05:28:19.297-07:002010-03-06T05:28:19.297-07:00I last saw Medea at the 18th century Court theatre...I last saw Medea at the 18th century Court theatre at Drottningholm some 25 years ago. http://www.dtm.se/eng/Göran Koch-Swahnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925549945659350649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-66171997876494095032010-03-05T18:18:48.210-07:002010-03-05T18:18:48.210-07:00Very true, Margaret. We have failed to name it, I ...Very true, Margaret. We have failed to name it, I suspect with much subconscious deliberation. So sad.<br /><br />Johnieb, I do commend the tragedies to you. I read all of them one summer and enjoyed it thoroughly.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06090720645937634051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-91244475557613820772010-03-05T13:39:22.529-07:002010-03-05T13:39:22.529-07:00Medea plays into the age-old myth of woman as blac...Medea plays into the age-old myth of woman as black widow spider, not only devouring her mate, but poisoning those around her. As in all the great myths, one finds a measure of truth or the myth would not resonate today.<br /><br />I find myself wondering if women in fundamentalist Muslim societies sometimes make use of the force of the myth, if only metaphorically. I hope so.June Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01723016934182800437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-46671998187511880862010-03-05T11:15:24.758-07:002010-03-05T11:15:24.758-07:00Yes --that grief and the way the Greeks plumbed it...Yes --that grief and the way the Greeks plumbed it is remarkable. thank you for this review.<br /><br />A side thought --had you realized that we have names for those who have lost spouses --widow, widower... names for those who have lost parents --orphan.... but there is no name for one who has lost a child. It is an un-nameable, taboo state of being. That's how horrifying it is --we can't even name it.it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222643.post-32054250029840447312010-03-05T10:30:23.234-07:002010-03-05T10:30:23.234-07:00Thanks for this, Paul; it makes me want to get bac...Thanks for this, Paul; it makes me want to get back to these Greeks, especially Medea, which I have neither read or seen.johniebhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11635403219973766022noreply@blogger.com